Politics
Authoritarianism and its Critics
Module code: L2110
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay
The most common form of autocracy today is electoral autocracy. This is where multiparty elections coexist with autocratic practices.
On this module, you’ll study:
- the ideologies used to justify and critique these regimes around the world
- how to analyse and interpret politicians’ speeches and actions, and evaluate writings about them
- how justifications of electoral autocracy engage with past and present political theories
- how these justifications distort ideas from democratic theory
- how critiques of electoral autocracy draw from and contribute to democratic thought.
Module learning outcomes
- Effectively formulate, organise and communicate arguments
- Describe the arguments through which electoral autocracy is justified
- Analyse how meanings are fixed in the formulation of justifications of electoral autocracy
- Critically evaluate theories of the ideologies through which justifications of electoral autocracy are analysed
- Analyse the underlying patterns in the ideologies through which electoral autocracy and democratic rule are justified and critiqued